COLLIDE@CERN ARS ELECTRONICA AWARD 2015

As a result of three successful years within the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Award, CERN and Ars Electronica decided to continue this fruitful cooperation and again launch an open call to artists working in different art forms to win a fully funded residency for up to 2 months at CERN, an international center of excellence, an inspirational place for artists and designers to explore and extend their research in order to find new artistic approaches.
The Ars Electronica Futurelab as second residency destination, where the awarded artist will spend another month, focuses on the future of the nexus of art, technology and society. The lab’s team bases its work commitment upon transdisciplinary research and work which results in a variety of different disciplines. Having Artists and Researchers from all over the globe collaborating with – and taking residencies at – the Ars Electronica Futurelab, is fundamental to this Atelier/Laboratory.

PRIX Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Residency Award 2012-2014

Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN is the new international competition for digital artists to win a residency at CERN the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva. It is the first prize to be announced as part of the new Collide@CERN artists residency programme initiated by the laboratory.

This new prize marks a 3 year science/arts cultural partnership and creative collaboration between CERN and Ars Electronica – which began with CERN’s cooperation with Origin – the Ars Electronica Festival in 2011.

The aim of the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN prize is to take digital creativity to new dimensions by colliding the minds of scientists with the imaginations of artists. In this way, we seek to accelerate innovation across culture in the 21st century – creating new dimensions in digital arts, inspired by the ideas, engineering and science generated at CERN, and produced by the winning artist in collaboration with the transdisciplinary expertise of the Futurelab team at Ars Electronica.

The residency is in two parts – with an initial two months at CERN, where the winning artist will have a specially dedicated science mentor from the world famous science lab to inspire him/her and his/her work. The second part will be a month with the Futurelab team and mentor at Ars Electronica Linz with whom the winner will develop and make new work inspired by the CERN residency. From the first meeting between the artists, their CERN and Futurelab mentors, they will all participate in a dialogue which will be a public blog of their creative process until the final work is produced and maybe beyond. In this way, the public will be able to join in the conversation.

This final work will be showcased both at the Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN, in Geneva and at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. It will also be presented in the Prix Ars Electronica’s “CyberArts” catalogue.

The winning artist will receive

10,000 Euros prize money

Rent, subsistence and travel are funded from a designated limited fund that is in addition to the prize money. The awarding of this prize is thanks to the generosity of Ars Electronica and the funding of the creative residencies made possible by the generosity of anonymous donors. All artists insurances for the residencies are funded by the Exclusive Sponsor of all artists insurances for the Collide@CERN programme, UNIQA Assurances SA Switzerland.

We are looking for digital artists who will be truly inspired by CERN, showing their wish to engage with the ideas and/or technology of particle physics and with CERN as a place of scientific collaboration, using them as springboards of the imagination which dare to go beyond the paradigm. You might be a choreographer, performer, visual artist, film maker or a composer – what you all have in common is that you use the digital as the means of making your work and/or the way of presenting it.

Submission Details

We are inviting artists working in the digital arts to submit their proposals.

A personal testimony video which introduces the artist who describes why and how this residency will inspire new work (Up to 5 min.)

An outline of a possible concept/idea which the artist wishes to pursue at CERN and Futurelab

A draft production plan with costings and timeline

A selected portfolio of work which showcases work the artist is proud of

All of the above have to be submitted online.

The concept description should explain the essentials of the idea, how and why the ideas and science generated by a residency at CERN and the working at Ars Electronica Futurelab are essential to the project.

The production plan should contain a clear description of the production tasks involved in the project, and how and why the Ars Electronica Futurelab personnel are important for the realization and production of the proposed idea.

The Jury will comprise two representatives from Ars Electronica/Futurelab with expertise in digital arts, two representatives from CERN (which will include the person in charge of the Arts @CERN and a member of the CERN Cultural Board) and an external expert in the field.

The Jury’s decision will be final and the artist will be expected to take up their residency in 2013. Where a first visit to CERN is planned in January, and the start for the actual residency in CERN will be March. After 2 months in CERN the Artist will travel to Linz for a third month to finish the residency at the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Evaluation Criteria

Every concept submitted for consideration will be evaluated by a jury of experts in the order in which it was received according to the following criteria:

Aesthetics, originality

Compelling conception

Innovation

Technique and quality of the presentation

Interest in the ideas of science as expressed by CERN

In addition, as part of the residency at CERN, the winning artist will be expected to engage with the community of scientists at CERN by holding open workshops with them to share artistic knowledge and inspiration. He/she will also hold public lectures the beginning and end of their residency with their science mentor at the Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN which will be broadcast via the internet and they will participate in the Ars Electronica Festival with their mentor also.